samsara for food & beverage clover dairy · —paul drake, distribution manager chain quickly...
TRANSCRIPT
100 years and cownting.
That’s the motto at Clover Sonoma’s Petaluma headquarters
(the cow puns only start there). Founded in 1916 as a local
cooperative, Clover Sonoma is now a household name for
dairy products across California. Most famous for its milk,
Clover has expanded to sell butter, eggs, ice cream, yogurt,
eggnog, cheese, and more.
The company’s success is driven by a commitment to
excellence, a flair for fun, and a genuine love of cows. Clover
was an early adopter of USDA Organic certification, offers
non-GMO milk, promises a bacteria count 40x lower than
federal requirements, and was the first US dairy certified for
animal welfare. Their delivery trucks are recognized across
the Bay Area for big logos and cow puns, and the company
takes pride in their local Sonoma community. In fact, Clover
donates at least 5% of profits to community initiatives
through their Clover Cares program. In their words, “we put
our moo-la where our mouth is.”
Clover DairySAMSARA FOR FOOD & BEVERAGE
A 100-year old dairy uses Samsara to maximize
customer satisfaction, while simultaneously finding
cost and time savings.
06042018JF
50+VEHICLE AND ASSET IOT GATEWAYSdeployed, along with wireless door,
cargo, and temperature sensors
103TRACTORS AND TRAILERS
50+DRIVERSdistributing dairy products
NEX T PAGE
Why They Chose Samsara
Given their commitment to excellence, it was
no surprise when the distribution department at
Clover decided to evaluate new technologies to
optimize deliveries and boost customer service.
The team tested several fleet tracking solutions
and chose Samsara for its accuracy and real-time
updates. Paul Drake, Clover’s Distribution Manager,
says Clover chose the platform because “it’s right
to the minute. Most other companies update every
2 or 5 or 10 minutes.” Today, Samsara helps Clover
respond to customer inquiries, remotely control
their reefers, analyze delivery progress, and
simplify maintenance.
How fleet tracking boosts customer service
“We get calls from customers asking where a
truck is all the time,” says Paul. With Samsara
vehicle gateways installed in all of their delivery
vehicles, Samsara helps Clover reduce the stress
and time burden of customer calls. Paul keeps
the Samsara dashboard open all day, so when the
phone rings, he looks at his computer and quickly
sees the real-time location of his trucks. Paul can
confirm whether or not a truck is pulling up to a
delivery site, delayed by traffic, or missed a stop.
Using Samsara’s routing features, he even has the
option to set up alerts and notify customers about
delivery status automatically.
Protecting their fleet from rejected loads
Typically, customers call with arrival time
questions, but once in a while, Paul receives the
dreaded call about a rejected load. Late last year,
a major chain called to reject Clover’s delivery
because it was an hour late to the unloading dock.
In the past, Paul had no way to defend his drivers;
but with Samsara, he confirmed that the delivery
truck had not just been on time, but 15 minutes
early. Paul shared the report, and the grocery
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Samsara changed the way
we think about our routes.
With the same number of
trucks, we were able to
expand our business into
new regions.”
—Paul Drake, Distribution Manager
chain quickly changed its story, saving Clover
thousands of dollars. Now, Clover has door and
cargo sensors installed on trailers, which lets Paul
see when a trailer is opened and unloaded to get
even greater insights about product quality and
delivery status.
How Clover uses Samsara to optimize operations
Consolidating routes for immediate ROI
Clover has over 100 delivery routes, and as a
growing company, they are frequently adding
more. In the past, they created net new routes
to meet growing demand, which required large
upfront investments; but this year, given the
national driver shortage and benefits of a new
fleet tracking system, Paul took a different
approach. Looking at his routes and trailer
utilization, he realized he could consolidate
three routes into two to make better use of his
existing trailers and drivers. Paul successfully
expanded Clover’s distribution reach without
any new costs. This change alone paid for the
investment in Samsara and more.
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Reducing downtime due to breakdowns
Clover also uses Samsara to reduce downtime
due to maintenance issues. Clover’s fleet has
breakdowns once or twice a week, but thanks
to Samsara, Paul limits the business impact of
breakdowns. Now when a truck goes out of
service, Paul can immediately see the truck’s
location and use Samsara’s Dispatch tool to
identify the closest driver who can take over the
route. “Before, we had to call around,” and calling
drivers one by one took a lot of time. “Now if we
need to re-route a driver, we look at where he is at
a particular time and move him. If we were using
a system that only updated every 10 minutes, that
would make quite a big difference.”
Conclusion
By providing visibility into real-time truck location
and historical route data, Samsara has saved Clover
thousands of dollars and helped ensure customer
satisfaction. Paul admits that he has only just touched
the surface of what Samsara’s complete platform offers,
but that makes it even more exciting to him. The
best is yet to come.
Find out how the Samsara platform can help your
business. Email us at [email protected].
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